West Virginia Wildlife from Eyewitness News

Ohio River Fish Structure

Fishing made easy on the Ohio River.

August 27, 2008
Reporter: Patrick McMurtry
Videographer: Brad Rice

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The ohio river is chock full of fish, but until now, it was kind of hard to find a place to fish it in the northern part of the state.

Now, thanks to the combined efforts of the united states fish and wildlife service and the west virginia dnr, anglers will soon have an easily accessible place to fish.

Dean Rhine/USFWS says:
"This project is a cooperative project that we work with the state DNR on. The goal was to try to provide access to the Ohio to the general public. It's one thing that's really missing in this area-public access and public lands."

This is really a series of projects designed to make the ohio river accessbile to everyone. This particular part will be ada compliant, meaning disabled anglers will have no trouble enjoying a day fishing.

You can see other parts of the project from the bank.

Dean Rhine/USFWS says:
"We have some stablization work and we have the actual fishing angle debris you can see the first ones sticking out further, and those angle dikes will provide structure into the river which attract fish and provide some access to anglers, especially on the 4th structure."

The ohio river islands national wildlife refuge was established in 1990 to protect, conserve and restore habitat for native wildlife. Until recently, one crucial part was missing.

Cris O'Bara/WVDNR biologist says:
"A lot of the Ohio is devoid of any type of habitat structure, especially hard rock structure, so one of the things we did over the last 6 to 8 months is put rock in the river to provide this type of habitat structure."

Thanks to the partnership of the national fish and wildlife service and the dnr...The ohio river is now more accessible to anglers and fish alike. For west virginia wildlife, patrick mcmurtry, eyewitness news.
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